The issue I see is : How do you pay for a mortgage? How do you stay in the same school district without a 2 hour commute? Job hopping is fine when you're young

The issue I see is : How do you pay for a mortgage? How do you stay in the same school district without a 2 hour commute? Job hopping is fine when you're young and can apartment hop every year. But when you get hitched, have a family, want a dog and a yard for the kiddos to play in, job hopping gets a LOT harder. Trying to pay off that mortgage between the two of you ain't easy when your schedule is changing so often (commuting really gets in the way of picking the kids up) and you may be out of work for 6 months or more. Sure, maybe the Bay is job-rich, but then the houses are $3k/mo. for the next 30 years. Yeah, maybe the job ain't peaches then, you take the stability for the joy. But there ain't any stability either now.